“A hockey team’s chemistry is huge. You need the guy who will go into the corner and take a check. You need a guy who will get a cross check to his back or a stick to his head to make a play to a guy in front to score a goal. You have to have something in common off of the ice. Our guys get along well as a group.”
One area Poile particularly likes is the way the role players fulfill what is expected of them.
“A great thing about hockey is it is truly a team game,” Poile said. “Kariya, Arnott and Sullivan are some our best, but the most they are on the ice is 20 minutes, one-third of a game. You have to have contributions from everybody and we are getting contributions throughout our lineup.

When Luc Robitaille and Jimmy Carson broke into the NHL as Kings rookies 21 years ago, few would have predicted that Robitaille would be the one whose jersey would be retired this Saturday night in Staples Center and Carson would be the one flying in for the ceremony to honor his longtime friend.
Robitaille, two years older than his teammate and a ninth-round pick in the 1984 draft, was considered a long shot for NHL stardom.
Carson, the No. 2 pick in 1986, was said to be a sure bet.

If Senators senior management is waiting to see how the Senators do down the stretch and into the playoffs to decide if Murray is still their man, there is a risk attached to that strategy.
If the Senators continue their march up the standings and have some success in the playoffs, Murray’s value and bargaining position are going to go up.
Sometime in the not too distant future, there is a point of no return.
If the Senators continue to play the way they have lately, it will be better for Murray not to sign with the Senators and see what happens.
Who knows what opportunities might be out there?

“I’m in a position now where I can help,” Daley said. “Today that’s the biggest thing, resources and money…. If I could help one kid, I could help 10,000 kids.”
Economics might be the biggest obstacle to many would-be black hockey players. But racism still exists in hockey, though it’s nowhere near as vicious as it was in O’Ree’s time.
Daley, 23, said he heard far more racial taunts as a youngster than he did as he moved up the ranks to the NHL, where he says he has never had a problem.

Tom Calhoun felt the same goosebumps as the fans on the night Hall of Famer Wayne Gretzky made his St. Louis Blues debut in 1996.
Calhoun had a rinkside seat when Paul Cavallini lost the tip of his finger at the old St. Louis Arena and once tried—very briefly—to keep Detroit’s Bob Probert from climbing out of the penalty into the stands during a brawl.
Calhoun recently celebrated his 20th anniversary as the public-address voice of the Blues, a streak made even more remarkable when considering the 56-year-old Millstadt resident has not missed a game.

So here’s the crux of it - if Renney is so concerned scratching Kasparaitis will create a negative-energy matter within the team, the Rangers should deal with the issue before it actually becomes one. If Renney doesn’t believe Kasparaitis can be a productive seventh defenseman, the Rangers should waive him immediately and either promote Bryce Lampman to fill the spot, or, for that matter, even consider restoring Sandis Ozolinsh to active duty after his, uh, knee discomfort abates.

Philippe Boucher brought an All-Star Game jersey to his dad this weekend and hung it in his hospital room in Quebec.
Jean-Claude Boucher is dying of pancreatic cancer, and Philippe said earlier in the week that he wasn’t sure he would be able to participate in the 55th NHL All-Star Game because of his dad’s condition – that he might want to use the time off to be with his family. But when the NHL announced Boucher as a member of the Western Conference All-Stars on Saturday for the Jan. 24 game at American Airlines Center, the Stars defenseman said there was no decision to make.
“My dad said I was going to play, that it was a big honor,” Boucher said. “So I am going to play.”

Despite the 4 1/2-hour time difference from California, [Sharks rookie Ryane] Clowe said many fans from his home province sacrifice sleep to catch the Sharks on the satellite dish.
``You’d be surprised how many stay up late,’’ he said.
Actually, considering how rare it is for a Newfoundland native to reach the NHL, it isn’t all that shocking. Clowe, Dan Cleary of Detroit and Michael Ryder of Montreal are the only Newfoundlanders skating in the NHL today.
``I’ve got a lot of pride about that because I know how much support I’ve gotten and how much hockey means back home,’’ said Clowe, a sixth-round draft pick of the Sharks in 2001. ``They love hockey and they love to see guys go away and do well. There’s no jealousy.

Yes, it was TSN’s Pierre McGuire who phoned me early this season to say - and this is a direct quote - “Jack, Sheldon Souray can’t play in the National Hockey League. “
I didn’t phone McGuire on that occasion, I didn’t ask him about Souray. He phoned me, he offered the opinion on his own. I didn’t name him when I wrote about Souray making the all-star team because I thought it was kind of funny that the guy who considers himself the world’s biggest expert on the NHL could be so wrong.

But when McGuire goes on the air and denies he said it and then says the Gazette has a problem - well, I have a problem with that. It’s one thing to be wrong, but lying is something else - and calling me a liar is something else again.

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